Companies in India Spent $34B on Green IT and Sustainability in 2014

Companies in India are becoming increasingly conscious of the global trends in corporate sustainability and are willing to integrate environmental and social concerns into their strategic business plans. Indian businesses are slowly but surely going beyond viewing CSR as only philanthropy, and adopting green IT and sustainability initiatives into their core business operations.

Global information technology research and advisory firm, Gartner, Inc., in its recent report called “Hype Cycle for Green IT and Sustainability in India 2014” has stated that India’s spending on green IT and sustainability initiatives will amount to $34 billion in 2014. This represents a jump of over 14 percent from $29.2 billion that was spent in 2013.

According to Gartner, the IT sector where energy and water costs account for a significant percentage of the operating costs, is stepping up efforts to make the operations more sustainable. Most of the companies have at least one green initiative driven by a motive to reduce operating costs. The use of renewable energy is being increasingly adopted, particularly in the sectors that have a high carbon footprint, such as oil, gas, mining and manufacturing.

The Gartner report has included three new technologies in this year’s Hype Cycle and profiled 36 technologies this year. The new technologies added to this year’s Hype Cycle include smart city frameworks, facilities energy management and green datacenters. Solar energy technology is one of the biggest movers in this year’s Hype Cycle. State governments in India are increasingly promoting solar energy with policies and incentives designed to attract investments in this area.

While corporate India’s efforts to adopt green IT and other sustainability measures are growing, but a lot still remains to be achieved. There is a need for the companies to adhere to environmental regulations and mandatory disclosures, and accede to the growing demands from stakeholders to report on their sustainability performance. Adoption of green technologies and sustainable business practices in the environment, social and governance (ESG) areas is important to build globally competitive Indian companies.